Indian herbal medicines have served as major source of medicine for prevention and treatment of many diseases including microbial infections. Emergence of multidrug resistance has limited the therapeutic options for antibiotics in the world. Hence, monitoring resistance is of paramount importance. The use of traditional herbal medicines in crude or refined form may help the treatment of microbial infections with two advantages, i.e. the cure is achieved and the chances of microbes becoming resistant are minimized. The herbal medicines have the advantage of producing minimum side effects when compared to the usual antibiotics. Therefore this study was undertaken to focus on the in vitro antimicrobial effects of two plants known for their medicinal value. Plant materials of Mucuna pruriens and Vetiveria zizanoides were tested for their antibacterial activities on selected strains of bacteria namely, Bacillus cereus (ATCC13061) Shigella flexneri (ATCC 12022) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 6643). These activities were compared with standard antibiotic namely Broad spectrum antibiotics, Penicillin and Ampicillin. Antimicrobial activity was measured using the standard method of diffusion disc plates on agar and the MIC was calculated using dilution method. Our results clearly indicate that the plants Mucuna pruriens and Vetiveria zizanoides have the antimicrobial properties.